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1397: Geoffrey Chaucer tells the “Canterbury Tales” for the first time at the court of Richard II.

1492: Christopher Columbus signs a contract with the Spanish monarchs to find the “Indies” with the stated goal of converting people to Catholicism. This promises him 10 per cent of all riches found, and the governorship of any lands encountered.

1534: Sir Thomas More is confined in the Tower of London.

1790: Death of inventor and US founding father Benjamin Franklin aged 84.

1808: Napoleon orders the seizure of US ships.

1860: Acknowledged as first world title bout, champion of England Tom Sayers and American John Heenan fight out a brutal 2 hour, 27 minute draw near Farnborough before police stop the fight.

1865: Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.

1875: Modern Snooker invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain, a bored British officer in Jabalpur, India.

1969: Alexander Dubcek is forced to resign as first secretary of Czechoslovakia’s Communist Party. On the same day, Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Sen Robert Kennedy and Bernadette Devlin becomes the youngest woman Member of Parliament elected to Westminster at 21 years old.

1970: Apollo 13 successfully limps back to earth after an oxygen tank exploded while in space.

1975: The Khmer Rouge captures Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

1979: Four Royal Ulster Constabulary officers are killed by a Provisional IRA van bomb in Bessbrook, County Armagh.

1983: Felix Pappalardi, producer of Cream and bass player with American rock band Mountain was shot dead by his wife Gail Collins. On the same day, Grete Waltz runs female world record marathon (2:25:29).